The RIAA is certainly taking its anti-piracy crusade to, forgive the term, a new level. Last night (Tuesday) they raided the Atlanta studio of popular mixtape DJs Drama and Don Cannon.Authorities served the two search warrants for music piracy, confiscating 50,000 mixtapes, computers, recording equipment, money, bank statements, and vehicles, or if you prefer the Atlanta Fox News version, they confiscated “everything.”

The RIAA’s Matthew Kilgo told the station that, “They’ve got a website that they’re advertising from. That’s where you place your order and that’s where you’re orders are shipped out.” We’re still not sure what’s wrong with having a website or advertising, but who knows? The Supreme Court might be working on that. It was also noted during the news clip that counterfeiting CDs goes “hand in hand” with other crimes.

Although 17 people were detained during this time, Drama and Cannon were the only two arrested. Their website, Gangstagrillz.com, is currently shut down.

Watch the Atlanta Fox News Clip

There’s nothing like short notice. Fans of New York rockers The Rapture, take note immediately. The band will be shooting the video for their “Pieces of the People We Love” track, from their 2006 album of the same name, this Thursday (1/18/07) and have asked fans to be a part of it.

The video will be shot in Brooklyn, NY. Anyone who wants the chance to appear in it should submit the following:

1. A photo of yourself
2. A short piece about why you would like to appear in the video

The production company will contact all lucky persons directly. The extent of the parts being offered has not been specified, but who wouldn’t want to jump on a potential 15 minutes of fame? Or at the very least, a chance to get crazy with the band.

In other Rapture news, the boys will be on the road in the US at the end of this month. Check the dates for a city near you.

US Tour Dates
01/25 Orlando, FL: The Club at Firestone
01/26 Tallahassee, FL: The Beta Bar
01/27 Atlanta, GA: Masquerade
01/29 Carrboro, NC: Cat’s Cradle
01/30 Charlottesville, VA: Starr Hill Music Hall
01/31 Louisville, KY: Headliners Music Hall
02/02 Cincinnati, OH: 20th Century Theatre
02/03 Pittsburgh, PA: Rex Theatre
02/05 Milwaukee, WI: The Rave
02/06 Indianapolis, IN: Birdy’s
02/07 Columbus, OH: The Basement
02/09 Baltimore, MD: Sonar
02/10 Northampton, MA: Pearl Street

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Milenasong – The Norwegian singer/songwriter is set to release Seven Sisters in a few weeks, an album she worked on with folk pioneer Jeff Tarlton. Together the two transformed her eclectic tracks into one cohesive unit that balances traditional song writing and psychedelic experiments with equal ease.

Daedelus – We never get tired of the L.A.-based whizz kid we know as Alfred Weisberg-Roberts, who is famous for including old ’30s and ’40s cinema samples in his songs, traversing many genres within a few bars of music, and introducing the Monome, a custom-built sample trigger device, into his live show.

Cougar – What began as something casual–a bunch of guys tinkering around with music in a freezing Wisconsin basement– turned into a full-length release named Law, an album full of hook-laden melodies that sweep over guitar chords. This is unabashedly epic instrumental music.

Murderbot – Known to his Kansas City friends as Chrissy, this guy has made a name as one of the U.S.’s leading ragga jungle producers, has a hunger for dancefloor smashing tunes, and once wrote a poem about the amen break that was published in XLR8R. Quite the start for a mild-mannered grad student.

Plus Device – An ultra-secretive project on Hefty, the members of this group prefer to let their music do the talking, and marry electro-funk with Detroit, Chicago, and acid house, with subtle nuances of instrumental hip-hop woven into the mix.

Originally released in 2002 on Mille Plateaux, Tim Hecker‘s Radio Amor was recently plucked from the ashes by Montreal’s Alien8 Recordings in a move aimed at ensuring the album’s availability on the record store shelves.

Considered one of the most important releases in the producer’s discography, Radio Amor has been out of print for two years despite his growing popularity and the success of Hecker’s Harmony in Ultraviolet, released in 2006 on Kranky. Amor is an album full of lush synths, gentle crunches and bleeps, and subtle shifts in tempo that make for the ultimate inward journey for any fan of the ambient. We can safely say the album’s reissue is a move that makes sense.

Radio Amor is out January 23, 2007 on Alien8.

Tracklisting
1. Song of the Highwire Shrimper
2. (They Call Me) Jimmy
3. Spectral
4. I’m Transmitting Tonight
5. 7000 Miles
6. Shipyards of LA Ceiba
7. Careless Whispers
8. The Star Compass
9. Azure Azure
10. Trade Winds, White Heat

Good music comes from unexpected places, in this case from Boise, Idaho, courtesy of Electricwest. Known to his friends as Pat Benolkin, he won December’s Christopher Willits/Colors Shifting Remix contest in which contestants were given Willits’ track “Colors Shifting” (well duh) to remix under a Creative Commons license.

“We received a bunch of submissions and a great handful of notable stuff, but Patrick’s remix definitely showed the best overall production of the group,” says Willits, who listened to each track and personally selected the winner. “He guided the samples into his own vision, and made it his own.”

Benolkin, a DJ and producer, spends the bulk of his time in his secluded studio working, and it shows here. He transforms Willits’ number into an abstract experiment of sound that retains the dreamy, ambient quality of the original while exploring an even moodier realm full of programmed beats and crunches, and mournful-yet-moving synth chords.

The track will be available on XLR8R‘s INCITE 49, packaged exclusively with copies of the March 2007 issue. Additionally, you can hear the track at overlap.org.

Stay tuned for Electricwest’s debut album, tba in 2007.